STRONG START FOR TEAM SUZUKI ECSTAR IN SACHSENRING

• Iannone with fast pace from the start.
• Alex Rins close to Top 10.
• Useful adjustments made.

The opening day of track action at Sachsenring was met with slightly tricky track conditions following heavy rain on Thursday. But the historical German circuit was thankfully bathed in sunshine for FP1. Andrea Iannone made a very positive start to the weekend as he topped the session with a 1:21.442, 0.390 seconds faster than the other riders. The Italian was also quickest through three out of the four track sectors. Meanwhile, Alex Rins had a small crash at Omega (Turn 3) but was able to rejoin the session and place himself in 12th with a 1:22.554.

In the afternoon’s FP2 session the track was nice and hot, and Team SUZUKI ECSTAR’s riders used their time to make adjustments, especially in the areas of rear suspension and tyre life. Andrea Iannone confirmed his good pace and ensured a provisional spot in Q2 by closing the session in 3rd (1:21.204). Despite improving his lap time by almost a second, Alex Rins narrowly missed out on provisional Q2 as he closed the session in 11th place (1:21.616).

Davide Brivio - Team Manager
“In the end, the position of our riders is not bad - Andrea is in 3rd position on combined and Alex just missed the Top 10. We tried quite a few different things during the session, with both riders, we tested things like tyre wear. Andrea is still looking for a better setting to optimise the performance of the tyres, and also Alex had some small issues. Overall our race pace is not bad, but we need to improve and work more to find the best possible settings for both riders.”

Andrea Iannone
“Today hasn’t been bad. We started really well this morning, and we used this afternoon to try a few things. In the end we put new tyres in to get ourselves far into the Top 10. We’re having a few problems with rear grip, like everybody at this track, but I’m struggling quite a lot. So tomorrow we’ll try to improve this situation. We have good speed, enough to stay at the top, but it will be important to maintain it over the race distance.”

Alex Rins
“Today has been productive. We did a lot of laps with a set of tyres, in FP1 we used just one tyre. We tried the soft rear to see how the degradation would be. At the end of FP2 I put a new tyre in just to try to get into the Top 10, but finally I was 11th. All of us are so close, so tomorrow we’ll put in even more effort and try to get into Q2. Spinning has been an issue and the tyre can drop off quite quickly, so this is something we hope to solve for Sunday. We hope to continue this weekend in a good way.”